Local Catholics began holding Mass in the home of Irish immigrant James Markey in Bunker Hill Township in 1845, with Father Kelly traveling on horseback from Ann Arbor to provide religious services. After a neighbor’s son died in 1849, Markey gave land for a cemetery, and parishioners built a wood-framed church in the middle of it in 1864. Bishop Lefevere of Detroit named the church after St. Cornelius, a Roman priest who became Pope in A.D. 251, and St. Cyprian, the Bishop of Carthage. In 1869 the parish bought an adjoining farm and received its first resident priest, but by 1873 the farm had been sold and the church became a mission of Pinckney’s parish. Father Connelly of Williamston was assigned to the parish in 1898, and the following year he led construction of a larger church to hold more members, paid for as it was built. In 1905, now serving as resident priest, he oversaw further expansion as the parish built a rectory and convent and moved the original church from the cemetery across the street, converting it into a school staffed by the Sisters of St. Joseph from Kalamazoo. Fires destroyed the church in 1906 and the rectory in 1910, and both were rebuilt in fire-resistant brick and stone. The parish built a larger school with an auditorium in 1912, and it served the community until 1964.